Control information on data channel in radio access network

ABSTRACT

There is disclosed a method of operating a user equipment in a radio access network, the user equipment being configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel. The user equipment further being configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel. The method includes transmitting control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration. The disclosure also pertains to related devices and methods.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This disclosure pertains to wireless communication technology, in particular in a radio access network (RAN), e.g. in a 5^(th) Generation RAN like New Radio (NR) or LTE Evolution (LTE Rel. 15 or later).

BACKGROUND

Modern wireless networks are developed to serve a wide range of use cases and applications, requiring a high level of flexibility of the system. However, flexibility usually requires a lot of information to be exchanged for controlling the flexibility, leading to a high level of signaling overhead. There are required new approaches of control signaling, allowing flexibility at low cost in overhead.

SUMMARY

It is an object of the present disclosure to provide approaches of handling control signaling efficiently, with low overhead. In particular, the approaches aim at situations in which control information is transmitted in data channel resources, e.g. uplink control information on a data channel like PUSCH. The approaches allow to provide flexibility and reliability of the control channel to the data channel.

The approaches are particularly advantageously implemented in a 5^(th) Generation (5G) telecommunication network or 5G radio access technology or network (RAT/RAN), in particular according to 3GPP (3^(rd) Generation Partnership Project, a standardisation organization). A suitable RAN may in particular be a RAN according to NR, for example release 15 or later, or LTE Evolution.

There is disclosed a method of operating a user equipment, or more generally a responding radio node, in a radio access network. The user equipment or responding radio node is configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel. The user equipment or responding radio node further is configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel, wherein the method comprises transmitting control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration.

Moreover, a user equipment or responding radio node for a radio access network is proposed, wherein the user equipment or responding radio node is configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel. The user equipment or responding radio node further is configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel: moreover, the user equipment or responding radio node is adapted for transmitting control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration. The responding radio node or user equipment may comprise, and/or be adapted for utilising, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a transmitter and/or transceiver and/or receiver, for transmitting, and/or mapping control information to data channel resources, and/or receiving a control channel configuration and/or a data channel configuration configuring the data channel resources. Alternatively, or additionally, the user equipment or responding radio node may comprise a corresponding transmitting module and/or mapping module and/or receiving module, respectively.

A responding radio node may generally be a radio node, like a user equipment or in some cases a network node, in particular in the context of backhaul communication. Any node transmitting control information as discussed herein, based on a control channel configuration, may be considered a responding radio node, in particular if the control information comprises feedback information, and/or is in response to scheduling information scheduling or triggering the transmission.

There is also disclosed a method of operating a radio node in a radio access network. The method comprises receiving control information from a user equipment, or more generally a responding radio node, configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel, the user equipment or responding radio node further being configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel, wherein the method comprises receiving the control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration.

Moreover, a radio node for a radio access network may be considered. The radio node is adapted for receiving control information from a user equipment or a responding radio node configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel, the user equipment or responding radio node further being configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel, wherein the radio node is adapted for receiving the control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration. The radio node may comprise, and/or be adapted for utilising, processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry, in particular a receiver and/or transceiver, for the receiving, and/or optionally a transmitter and/or transceiver for configuring the responding radio node or user equipment. Alternatively, or additionally, the radio node may comprise a receiving module for the receiving and/or a configuring module for configuring. The radio node may in particular be a network node like a base station or eNB or gNB. However, in some scenarios, e.g. for sidelink communication, the radio node may be a user equipment. In this case, configuring the responding radio node may be performed by the radio node, or by another radio node, e.g. a network node, which may control and/or manage sidelink communication or associated resource or resource pools.

The control channel may in particular be a physical control channel, e.g. an uplink or sidelink channel, e.g. PUCCH or PSCCH. The data channel may be a physical data channel, for example a shared or dedicated channel, in particular a PUSCH or PSSCH. A data channel may be associated to data signaling and/or communication signaling, in particular of user data, and/or may be associated to a user plane. The control information may be uplink or sidelink control information, e.g. UCI or SCI.

The data channel resources may be configured with and/or based on a data channel configuration. Data channel resources may generally be resources indicated and/or scheduled for data channel transmission, e.g. based on data channel control information. Data channel resources may comprise one or more resource elements, and/or one or more resource blocks, in particular physical resource blocks. The data channel resources may be scheduled and/or indicated and/or configured with control signaling, in particular with a scheduling grant (or UL or SL grant), e.g. by the radio node. Such control signaling may be associated to a control channel, e.g. PDCCH or PSCCH, which may have different or opposite communication direction than the control information to be transmitted by the responding radio node or user equipment. Such a control channel may be referred to as a data control channel, if it configures a data channel and/or resources therefor.

In the following it may be referred to the more general term responding radio node instead of user equipment, noting that a user equipment is a particular variant of a responding radio node.

The control information transmitted by the responding radio node may be uplink or sidelink control information. The control channel configuration and the data resources may be associated to the same communication direction, e.g. uplink or sidelink communication, and/or be configured by signaling in the other direction, e.g. downlink or opposite sidelink, respectively, for example by the network or a network node, which may in particular be the radio node receiving the control information.

Receiving control information may comprise associating signaling on the data channel with control information, and/or decoding and/or demodulating it based on the control channel configuration and/or a data channel configuration, and/or based on the mapping used. It may be considered that the radio node receiving the control information is informed about the data channel configuration and/or the control channel configuration and/or the mapping, e.g. by another network node or radio node, or because it configured the responding radio node itself. Receiving control information based on information representing one or more parameters of the control channel configuration, and/or determined based thereon, e.g. for the mapping, may be considered examples of receiving control information based on the configuration.

In some variants, the control information to be transmitted on the data channel resources may be uplink control information, and/or the control channel configuration and/or the data channel resources or a corresponding configuration, may be configured with downlink control information, in particular with physical layer control signaling and/or dynamically and/or with DCI signaling.

Transmitting control information on data channel resources may comprise, and/or be based on, mapping control information, e.g. bits representing the control information, to resources, in particular resource element/s, of the data channel resources, and/or symbols to be signaled on these resources. The mapping may be performed based on the control channel configuration, and/or one or more indications or parameters indicated therein. Transmitting the control information is considered to be based on the control channel configuration if the mapping is.

The control channel configuration and/or a data channel configuration may indicate and/or represent and/or be based on a reliability and/or transmission requirement, or a set thereof. Such requirement or set may for example pertain to a (target) error rate, e.g. a block error rate and/or a bit error rate, which may pertain to the transmission of control information, and/or to transmission on a data channel. The control channel configuration may be determined based on, and/or to achieve, such requirement/s, e.g. by the configuring radio node. Parameters indicated in the control channel configuration for the control channel may reflect the requirement or set. The control channel configuration may represent different requirements for different types of control information to be transmitted. Alternatively, or additionally, the mapping of control information to resources and/or symbol of the data channel may be based on, and/or consider, different requirements for different types. For example, acknowledgement information may have a requirement reflecting a lower error rate than scheduling request information. In some cases, acknowledgement information representing non-acknowledgement (NACK) may have a requirement of lower error rate than acknowledgment information indicating acknowledgment (ACK), to ensure that incorrectly received data is resend and not falsely withheld from retransmission. A requirement for an error rate may be reflected by a target error rate. For different types of control information, and/or for different signaling contexts, there may be different target error rates. A signaling context may reflect a use case, e.g. MBB transmission (Mobile BroadBand) or URLLC transmission, and/or priority and/or quality of service, which may translate to different requirements and/or target error rates. Control configuration parameters, and/or a mapping of control information to data channel resources and/or symbols to be transmitted thereon, may be configured based on such requirements and/or target error rates, and/or may reflect such implicitly or explicitly.

The control channel configuration may indicate, e.g. implicitly or explicitly, a code rate for the control channel. Transmitting control information may be performed based on the code rate. The code rate may represent a requirement, in particular in terms of reliability and/or error rate.

In particular, it may be considered that the control information is mapped for transmission to data channel resources based on a code rate indicated by the control channel configuration.

The control channel configuration may be configured with a downlink control information message, in particular with a DCI message. The data channel resources and/or a corresponding configuration, may be configured with another DCI message.

It may be considered that the control channel configuration indicates control channel resources for transmission of control information on the control channel, wherein the control channel resources coincide in time domain with data channel resources. Frequency resources for the control channel may in some cases be different from frequency resources for the data channel. Coinciding of resources may indicate at least partly overlapping in time domain, and/or being scheduled or indicate or configured for the same transmission timing structure, in particular the same slot. In this case, the responding radio node may automatically, and/or based on a configuration, use the data channel resources for the control information, e.g. to avoid sidelobe interference.

At least one parameter based on which control information is mapped to data channel resources may be determined based on the control channel configuration. Mapping of control information to data channel resources may comprise mapping control information, e.g. associated bits, to symbols (modulation symbols) to be signaling on the data channel resources.

In some variants, control information may be mapped to data channel resources based on a set of formulas, one of which is selected for each mapping.

Mapping may comprise selecting resources, e.g. a range of resources, from the data channel resources, and/or determining a number of (modulation) symbols to which the control information is to be mapped, wherein the modulation symbols may be mapped to resources, e.g. resource elements, of the data channel resources. A mapping may be based on a formula, which may comprise one or more parameters. One or more parameters may be selected and/or based on the control channel configuration. A parameter (e.g, parameter O) of the mapping may for example represent the number of bits to be mapped, which may depend on the type of control information. For example, for the number of bits may be the number of ACK/NACK bits, or bits for rank indication (RI) or other measurement reporting information. A further parameter may be an offset (e.g., referred to as beta), which may provide a spectral efficiency-based offset. For different types of information, different betas may be used, e.g. a beta for acknowledgment information, or one for ACK and another for NACK, and/or one for measurement reporting information, e.g. different ones for RI and/or CSI and/or PMI, etc. Alternatively, or additionally, beta may be dependent on the number of bits to be transmitted, e.g. on the number acknowledgement information (like ACK/NACK or HARQ) bits. Another parameter, or more than one parameters, (coding parameter/s) may represent the coding to be used, e.g. the number of coding bits, and/or the code rate, and/or the coding to be used for the data channel transmission, and/or the number of available code blocks and/or code block groups and/or the bits available for each block or group. It should be noted that data channel and control channel may use different coding schemes (e.g., LDPC vs. polar coding). For some variants, in particular for single ACK/NACK transmission (which may pertain to one HARQ process), a parameter like the offset and/or a coding parameter may depend on whether ACK or NACK is to be transmitted. It may be considered that one or more parameters pertain to the modulation to be used, and/or to the MCS. Any one, or any combination of parameters for the mapping, may be determined based on the control channel configuration. In particular, a parameter of the mapping may be determined based on a similar parameter of the control channel configuration. It may be considered that a parameter mapping between one or more parameters indicated in the control channel configuration and one or more parameters of the data channel (respectively, of the mapping between symbols/resource of the data channel and control information) is provided, e.g. based on one or more tables and/or one or more formulas.

Control information may be mapped to data channel resources based on a control signaling type. Different mappings may be used for different control signaling types.

A control signaling type may in particular represent the type of information and/or the signaling context. Types of control information exemplarily may be acknowledgement information, which may comprise the subtypes of information indicating acknowledgment and information indicating non-acknowledgement, or more generally feedback information, or measurement reporting information, or scheduling information. Measurement reporting information may comprise different subtypes, e.g. depending on whether the information is periodical or aperiodical, and/or configured semi-statically or dynamically, and/or the content, e.g. based on whether the information indicates channel state information (CSI) or PMI or RI.

Different types of control information may be mapped to different resources or ranges of resources, and/or may be mapped with different mappings.

In some variants, the data channel resources are configured with a first control information message, and the control channel configuration is configured with a different second control information message. The first control information message may be a scheduling grant, and/or the second control information message may be a scheduling assignment. The first and second control information message may pertain to the same transmission timing structure, and/or may be received in the same transmission timing structure, in particular the same slot.

The data channel may generally pertain to the same carrier or carrier aggregation as the control channel, and/or may pertain to the same bandwidth part.

It may be considered that the control information is rate-matched or punctured on the data channel. Rate matching may comprise adapting code rate, and/or exchanging and/or shifting coding bits for data with information bits of control information. Puncturing may comprise replacing bits of data with control information.

There is also considered a program product comprising instructions adapted for causing processing circuitry to control and/or perform a method as described herein.

Moreover, a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product as described herein is proposed.

The approaches described herein facilitate adapting transmission of control information on a data channel to a control channel configuration, in particular to comply with requirements set for the control channel, with limited or no overhead.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The drawings are provided to illustrate concepts and approaches described herein, and are not intended to limit their scope. The drawings comprise:

FIG. 1, schematically showing mapping of control information to data channel resources;

FIG. 2, schematically showing a radio node implemented as a user equipment; and

FIG. 3, schematically showing a radio node implemented as a network node.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

FIG. 1 schematically shows an exemplary mapping of control information onto data channel resources. FIG. 1 may represent a part of a transmission timing structure, e.g. a slot, e.g. after a control region. In the scenario shown, a control channel configuration may indicate resources and/or parameters for control information transmission by a UE, e.g. transmission on PUCCH. The control information may for example be indicated by a scheduling assignment and may schedule downlink data signaling (e.g., on PDSCH) and acknowledgment signaling pertaining thereto as control information CI1. It may also include other types of control information CI2, e.g. a scheduling request and/or measurement reporting information.

A data channel configuration (e.g., scheduled by a scheduling grant) may indicate data channel resources, in particular for PUSCH transmission. The resources for PUSCH and PUCCH may coincide (they may generally be later in time than a control region, e.g. for PDCCH, and/or downlink data signaling, e.g. on PDSCH). In this case, the PUCCH resources may be unused, and the control information may be transmitted utilising data channel resources instead. In the example shown, CI1 are mapped into a different resource range of the data channel resources than CI2. Also, different parameters for mapping the control information associated to CI1 to symbols transmitted in the respective range may be used than for mapping the control information associated to CI2. Generally, the mapping may consider and/or be based on information and/or parameters of the control channel configuration.

FIG. 2 schematically shows a radio node, in particular a terminal or wireless device 10, which may in particular be implemented as a UE (User Equipment). Radio node 10 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 20, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module of the radio node 10, e.g. a communicating module or determining module, may be implemented in and/or executable by, the processing circuitry 20, in particular as module in the controller. Radio node 10 also comprises radio circuitry 22 providing receiving and transmitting or transceiving functionality (e.g., one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers), the radio circuitry 22 being connected or connectable to the processing circuitry. An antenna circuitry 24 of the radio node 10 is connected or connectable to the radio circuitry 22 to collect or send and/or amplify signals. Radio circuitry 22 and the processing circuitry 20 controlling it are configured for cellular communication with a network, e.g. a RAN as described herein, and/or for sidelink communication. Radio node 10 may generally be adapted to carry out any of the methods of operating a radio node like terminal or UE disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/or modules.

FIG. 3 schematically show a radio node 100, which may in particular be implemented as a network node 100, for example an eNB or gNB or similar for NR. Radio node 100 comprises processing circuitry (which may also be referred to as control circuitry) 120, which may comprise a controller connected to a memory. Any module, e.g. transmitting module and/or receiving module and/or configuring module of the node 100 may be implemented in and/or executable by the processing circuitry 120. The processing circuitry 120 is connected to control radio circuitry 122 of the node 100, which provides receiver and transmitter and/or transceiver functionality (e.g., comprising one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers). An antenna circuitry 124 may be connected or connectable to radio circuitry 122 for signal reception or transmittance and/or amplification. Node 100 may be adapted to carry out any of the methods for operating a radio node or network node disclosed herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/or modules. The antenna circuitry 124 may be connected to and/or comprise an antenna array. The node 100, respectively its circuitry, may be adapted to perform any of the methods of operating a network node or a radio node as described herein; in particular, it may comprise corresponding circuitry, e.g. processing circuitry, and/or modules. The radio node 100 may generally comprise communication circuitry, e.g. for communication with another network node, like a radio node, and/or with a core network and/or an internet or local net, in particular with an information system, which may provide information and/or data to be transmitted to a user equipment.

The code rate (which may be referred to as coding rate) may generally indicate or represent a ratio between a number I of information bits (representing control information) and a number E of encoded bits, which may be determined based on the information bits, and include and/or represent them. Thus, generally, E>I may be considered to hold, and L=E−I may be considered to represent the error coding bits. The I information bits may be jointly encoded, e.g. in one group or in subgroups. Encoding may be considered to comprise error encoding, in particular error detection coding and/or forward error correction coding. Such encoding may add a number of bits to a given number I to enable error detection and/or correction. Different types of error encoding may be considered, e.g. polar coding or LDPC coding. Note that depending on the error encoding type used, the information bits I may be left untouched, or may be transformed, to be represented in the E encoded bits. E may be considered to represent the total number of bits after encoding, including the representation of the I information bits, plus the error coding bits L, which may be mathematically interwoven. The code rate indication may comprise one or more indicators, which may be provided or obtained together or separately, e.g. in different messages, which may be on the same or different layers, e.g. physical layer (like DCI signaling), MAC or RRC/RLC layer. Generally, the code rate indication may comprise at least one indicator (e.g., a parameter or index of bit field), which may be provided with a configuration, e.g. via DCI signaling or RRC signaling. The code rate may be determined based on the code rate indication, and optionally, be determined based on one or more additionally indications and/or parameters. The code rate may, for example, be determined based on the number I, which may be referred to as payload size (the corresponding information bits may be considered the payload) of the feedback control signaling. The feedback control signaling may be signaling that has been transmitted based on modulating the encoded bits, e.g. based on an MCS scheme, and/or mapping of modulated symbols/bits in frequency domain and/or time domain, e.g. to subcarriers and/or symbols of resources scheduled or allocated for the feedback control signaling. Such resources may be scheduled e.g. with a scheduling assignment, and/or other control signaling, which may indicate which resources are to be used for feedback signaling pertaining to reception of signaling, which may be signaling indicated by the scheduling assignment. Signaling the feedback signaling pertains to may generally be communicating signaling and/or reference signaling, which the feedbacking radio node may be scheduled and/or configured and/or intended to receive. The code rate may for example be determined based on bandwidth for feedback control signaling and/or modulation scheme and/or number of information bits and/or encoding scheme and/or the code rate indication. Transmitting feedback control signaling may comprise determining the code rate, e.g., directly from the code rate indication, and/or calculating and/or estimating and/or reading it. However, transmitting feedback control signaling with the indicated code rate may be performed without explicitly determining the code rate. Thus, the code rate may be implicit to the feedback control signaling, e.g. represented by the ratio I/E and/or other parameters of the signaling. Generally, the code rate indication may be implicit or explicit. Configuring a feedbacking radio node with a code rate indication may be based on and/or comprise determining, implicitly or explicitly, the code rate. The indicated code rate may be an actual code rate, or an estimate or representation of an actual code rate, e.g. an upper or lower limit representation. Information bits I may be considered to be (en-)coded with a code rate R, if I/E=R, or I/E corresponds to a representation and/or estimate and/or upper or lower limiting representation or R.

References to specific resource structures like transmission timing structure and/or symbol and/or slot and/or mini-slot and/or subcarrier and/or carrier may pertain to a specific numerology, which may be predefined and/or configured or configurable. A transmission timing structure may represent a time interval, which may cover one or more symbols. Some examples of a transmission timing structure are transmission time interval (TTI), subframe, slot and mini-slot. A slot may comprise a predetermined, e.g. predefined and/or configured or configurable, number of symbols, e.g. 6 or 7, or 12 or 14. A mini-slot may comprise a number of symbols (which may in particular be configurable or configured) smaller than the number of symbols of a slot, in particular 1, 2, 3 or 4 symbols. A transmission timing structure may cover a time interval of a specific length, which may be dependent on symbol time length and/or cyclic prefix used. A transmission timing structure may pertain to, and/or cover, a specific time interval in a time stream, e.g. synchronized for communication. Timing structures used and/or scheduled for transmission, e.g. slot and/or mini-slots, may be scheduled in relation to, and/or synchronized to, a timing structure provided and/or defined by other transmission timing structures. Such transmission timing structures may define a timing grid, e.g., with symbol time intervals within individual structures representing the smallest timing units. Such a timing grid may for example be defined by slots or subframes (wherein in some cases, subframes may be considered specific variants of slots). A transmission timing structure may have a duration (length in time) determined based on the durations of its symbols, possibly in addition to cyclic prefix/es used. The symbols of a transmission timing structure may have the same duration, or may in some variants have different duration. The number of symbols in a transmission timing structure may be predefined and/or configured or configurable, and/or be dependent on numerology. The timing of a mini-slot may generally be configured or configurable, in particular by the network and/or a network node. The timing may be configurable to start and/or end at any symbol of the transmission timing structure, in particular one or more slots.

There is generally considered a program product comprising instructions adapted for causing processing and/or control circuitry to carry out and/or control any method described herein, in particular when executed on the processing and/or control circuitry. Also, there is considered a carrier medium arrangement carrying and/or storing a program product as described herein.

A carrier medium arrangement may comprise one or more carrier media. Generally, a carrier medium may be accessible and/or readable and/or receivable by processing or control circuitry. Storing data and/or a program product and/or code may be seen as part of carrying data and/or a program product and/or code. A carrier medium generally may comprise a guiding/transporting medium and/or a storage medium. A guiding/transporting medium may be adapted to carry and/or carry and/or store signals, in particular electromagnetic signals and/or electrical signals and/or magnetic signals and/or optical signals. A carrier medium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may be adapted to guide such signals to carry them. A carrier medium, in particular a guiding/transporting medium, may comprise the electromagnetic field, e.g. radio waves or microwaves, and/or optically transmissive material, e.g. glass fiber, and/or cable. A storage medium may comprise at least one of a memory, which may be volatile or non-volatile, a buffer, a cache, an optical disc, magnetic memory, flash memory, etc.

A system comprising one or more radio nodes as described herein, in particular a network node and a user equipment, is described. The system may be a wireless communication system, and/or provide and/or represent a radio access network.

In general, a numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may indicate the bandwidth (in frequency domain) of a subcarrier of a carrier, and/or the number of subcarriers in a carrier and/or the numbering of the subcarriers in a carrier. Different numerologies may in particular be different in the bandwidth of a subcarrier. In some variants, all the subcarriers in a carrier have the same bandwidth associated to them. The numerology and/or subcarrier spacing may be different between carriers in particular regarding the subcarrier bandwidth. A symbol time length, and/or a time length of a timing structure pertaining to a carrier may be dependent on the carrier frequency, and/or the subcarrier spacing and/or the numerology. In particular, different numerologies may have different symbol time lengths.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signals and/or messages. A signal may comprise or represent one or more bits. An indication may represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal, or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/or represented by a message. Signaling, in particular control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to different signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes and/or corresponding information. An indication may comprise signaling, and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may be comprised therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes. Signaling associated to a channel may be transmitted such that represents signaling and/or information for that channel, and/or that the signaling is interpreted by the transmitter and/or receiver to belong to that channel. Such signaling may generally comply with transmission parameters and/or format/s for the channel.

Reference signaling may be signaling comprising one or more reference symbols and/or structures. Reference signaling may be adapted for gauging and/or estimating and/or representing transmission conditions, e.g. channel conditions and/or transmission path conditions and/or channel (or signal or transmission) quality. It may be considered that the transmission characteristics (e.g., signal strength and/or form and/or modulation and/or timing) of reference signaling are available for both transmitter and receiver of the signaling (e.g., due to being predefined and/or configured or configurable and/or being communicated). Different types of reference signaling may be considered, e.g. pertaining to uplink, downlink or sidelink, cell-specific (in particular, cell-wide, e.g., CRS) or device or user specific (addressed to a specific target or user equipment, e.g., CSI-RS), demodulation-related (e.g., DMRS) and/or signal strength related, e.g. power-related or energy-related or amplitude-related (e.g., SRS or pilot signaling) and/or phase-related, etc.

Uplink or sidelink signaling may be OFDMA (Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access) or SC-FDMA (Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiple Access) signaling. Downlink signaling may in particular be OFDMA signaling. However, signaling is not limited thereto (Filter-Bank based signaling may be considered one alternative).

A radio node may generally be considered a device or node adapted for wireless and/or radio (and/or microwave) frequency communication, and/or for communication utilising an air interface, e.g. according to a communication standard.

A radio node may be a network node, or a user equipment or terminal. A network node may be any radio node of a wireless communication network, e.g. a base station and/or gNodeB (gNB) and/or eNodeB (eNB) and/or relay node and/or micro/nano/pico/femto node and/or transmission point (TP) and/or access point (AP) and/or other node, in particular for a RAN as described herein.

The terms wireless device, user equipment (UE) and terminal may be considered to be interchangeable in the context of this disclosure. A wireless device, user equipment or terminal may represent an end device for communication utilising the wireless communication network, and/or be implemented as a user equipment according to a standard. Examples of user equipments may comprise a phone like a smartphone, a personal communication device, a mobile phone or terminal, a computer, in particular laptop, a sensor or machine with radio capability (and/or adapted for the air interface), in particular for MTC (Machine-Type-Communication, sometimes also referred to M2M, Machine-To-Machine), or a vehicle adapted for wireless communication. A user equipment or terminal may be mobile or stationary.

A radio node may generally comprise processing circuitry and/or radio circuitry. A radio node, in particular a network node, may in some cases comprise cable circuitry and/or communication circuitry, with which it may be connected or connectable to another radio node and/or a core network.

Circuitry may comprise integrated circuitry. Processing circuitry may comprise one or more processors and/or controllers (e.g., microcontrollers), and/or ASICs (Application Specific Integrated Circuitry) and/or FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Array), or similar. It may be considered that processing circuitry comprises, and/or is (operatively) connected or connectable to one or more memories or memory arrangements. A memory arrangement may comprise one or more memories. A memory may be adapted to store digital information. Examples for memories comprise volatile and non-volatile memory, and/or Random Access Memory (RAM), and/or Read-Only-Memory (ROM), and/or magnetic and/or optical memory, and/or flash memory, and/or hard disk memory, and/or EPROM or EEPROM (Erasable Programmable ROM or Electrically Erasable Programmable ROM).

Radio circuitry may comprise one or more transmitters and/or receivers and/or transceivers (a transceiver may operate or be operable as transmitter and receiver, and/or may comprise joint or separated circuitry for receiving and transmitting, e.g. in one package or housing), and/or may comprise one or more amplifiers and/or oscillators and/or filters, and/or may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to antenna circuitry and/or one or more antennas and/or antenna arrays. An antenna array may comprise one or more antennas, which may be arranged in a dimensional array, e.g. 2D or 3D array, and/or antenna panels. A remote radio head (RRH) may be considered as an example of an antenna array. However, in some variants, a RRH may be also be implemented as a network node, depending on the kind of circuitry and/or functionality implemented therein.

Communication circuitry may comprise radio circuitry and/or cable circuitry. Communication circuitry generally may comprise one or more interfaces, which may be air interface/s and/or cable interface/s and/or optical interface/s, e.g. laser-based. Interface/s may be in particular packet-based. Cable circuitry and/or a cable interfaces may comprise, and/or be connected or connectable to, one or more cables (e.g., optical fiber-based and/or wire-based), which may be directly or indirectly (e.g., via one or more intermediate systems and/or interfaces) be connected or connectable to a target, e.g. controlled by communication circuitry and/or processing circuitry.

Any one or all of the modules disclosed herein may be implemented in software and/or firmware and/or hardware. Different modules may be associated to different components of a radio node, e.g. different circuitries or different parts of a circuitry. It may be considered that a module is distributed over different components and/or circuitries. A program product as described herein may comprise the modules related to a device on which the program product is intended (e.g., a user equipment or network node) to be executed (the execution may be performed on, and/or controlled by the associated circuitry).

A radio access network may be a wireless communication network, and/or a Radio Access Network (RAN) in particular according to a communication standard. A communication standard may in particular a standard according to 3GPP and/or 5G, e.g. according to NR or LTE, in particular LTE Evolution.

A wireless communication network may be and/or comprise a Radio Access Network (RAN), which may be and/or comprise any kind of cellular and/or wireless radio network, which may be connected or connectable to a core network. The approaches described herein are particularly suitable for a 5G network, e.g. LTE Evolution and/or NR (New Radio), respectively successors thereof. A RAN may comprise one or more network nodes, and/or one or more terminals, and/or one or more radio nodes. A network node may in particular be a radio node adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with one or more terminals. A terminal may be any device adapted for radio and/or wireless and/or cellular communication with or within a RAN, e.g. a user equipment (UE) or mobile phone or smartphone or computing device or vehicular communication device or device for machine-type-communication (MTC), etc. A terminal may be mobile, or in some cases stationary. A RAN or a wireless communication network may comprise at least one network node and a UE, or at least two radio nodes. There may be generally considered a wireless communication network or system, e.g. a RAN or RAN system, comprising at least one radio node, and/or at least one network node and at least one terminal.

Transmitting in downlink may pertain to transmission from the network or network node to the terminal. Transmitting in uplink may pertain to transmission from the terminal to the network or network node. Transmitting in sidelink may pertain to (direct) transmission from one terminal to another. Uplink, downlink and sidelink (e.g., sidelink transmission and reception) may be considered communication directions. In some variants, uplink and downlink may also be used to described wireless communication between network nodes, e.g. for wireless backhaul and/or relay communication and/or (wireless) network communication for example between base stations or similar network nodes, in particular communication terminating at such. It may be considered that backhaul and/or relay communication and/or network communication is implemented as a form of sidelink or uplink communication or similar thereto.

Control information or a control information message or corresponding signaling (control signaling) may be transmitted on a control channel, e.g. a physical control channel, which may be a downlink channel or (or a sidelink channel in some cases, e.g. one UE scheduling another UE). For example, control information/allocation information may be signaled by a network node on PDCCH (Physical Downlink Control Channel) and/or a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel. Acknowledgement signaling, e.g. as a form of control information or signaling like uplink control information/signaling, may be transmitted by a terminal on a PUCCH (Physical Uplink Control Channel) and/or PUSCH (Physical Uplink Shared Channel) and/or a HARQ-specific channel. Multiple channels may apply for multi-component/multi-carrier indication or signaling.

Signaling may generally be considered to represent an electromagnetic wave structure (e.g., over a time interval and frequency interval), which is intended to convey information to at least one specific or generic (e.g., anyone who might pick up the signaling) target. A process of signaling may comprise transmitting the signaling. Transmitting signaling, in particular control signaling or communication signaling, e.g. comprising or representing acknowledgement signaling and/or resource requesting information, may comprise encoding and/or modulating. Encoding and/or modulating may comprise error detection coding and/or forward error correction encoding and/or scrambling. Receiving control signaling may comprise corresponding decoding and/or demodulation. Error detection coding may comprise, and/or be based on, parity or checksum approaches, e.g. CRC (Cyclic Redundancy Check). Forward error correction coding may comprise and/or be based on for example turbo coding and/or Reed-Muller coding, and/or polar coding and/or LDPC coding (Low Density Parity Check). The type of coding used may be based on the channel (e.g., physical channel) the coded signal is associated to. A code rate may represent the ratio of the number of information bits before encoding to the number of encoded bits after encoding, considering that encoding adds coding bits for error detection coding and forward error correction. Coded bits may refer to information bits (also called systematic bits) plus coding bits.

Communication signaling may comprise, and/or represent, and/or be implemented as, data signaling, and/or user plane signaling. Communication signaling may be associated to a data channel, e.g. a physical downlink channel or physical uplink channel or physical sidelink channel, in particular a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel) or PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared Channel). Generally, a data channel may be a shared channel or a dedicated channel. Data signaling may be signaling associated to and/or on a data channel.

An indication generally may explicitly and/or implicitly indicate the information it represents and/or indicates. Implicit indication may for example be based on position and/or resource used for transmission. Explicit indication may for example be based on a parametrisation with one or more parameters, and/or one or more index or indices, and/or one or more bit patterns representing the information. It may in particular be considered that control signaling as described herein, based on the utilised resource sequence, implicitly indicates the control signaling type.

A resource element may generally describe the smallest individually usable and/or encodable and/or decodable and/or modulatable and/or demodulatable time-frequency resource, and/or may describe a time-frequency resource covering a symbol time length in time and a subcarrier in frequency. A signal may be allocatable and/or allocated to a resource element. A subcarrier may be a subband of a carrier, e.g. as defined by a standard. A carrier may define a frequency and/or frequency band for transmission and/or reception. In some variants, a signal (jointly encoded/modulated) may cover more than one resource elements. A resource element may generally be as defined by a corresponding standard, e.g. NR or LTE. As symbol time length and/or subcarrier spacing (and/or numerology) may be different between different symbols and/or subcarriers, different resource elements may have different extension (length/width) in time and/or frequency domain, in particular resource elements pertaining to different carriers.

A resource generally may represent a time-frequency and/or code resource, on which signaling, e.g. according to a specific format, may be communicated, for example transmitted and/or received, and/or be intended for transmission and/or reception.

A border symbol may generally represent a starting symbol or an ending symbol for transmitting and/or receiving. A starting symbol may in particular be a starting symbol of uplink or sidelink signaling, for example control signaling or data signaling. Such signaling may be on a data channel or control channel, e.g. a physical channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel (like PUSCH) or a sidelink data or shared channel, or a physical uplink control channel (like PUCCH) or a sidelink control channel. If the starting symbol is associated to control signaling (e.g., on a control channel), the control signaling may be in response to received signaling (in sidelink or downlink), e.g. representing acknowledgement signaling associated thereto, which may be HARQ or ARQ signaling. An ending symbol may represent an ending symbol (in time) of downlink or sidelink transmission or signaling, which may be intended or scheduled for the radio node or user equipment. Such downlink signaling may in particular be data signaling, e.g. on a physical downlink channel like a shared channel, e.g. a PDSCH (Physical Downlink Shared Channel). A starting symbol may be determined based on, and/or in relation to, such an ending symbol.

Configuring a radio node, in particular a terminal or user equipment, may refer to the radio node being adapted or caused or set and/or instructed to operate according to the configuration. Configuring may be done by another device, e.g., a network node (for example, a radio node of the network like a base station or eNodeB) or network, in which case it may comprise transmitting configuration data to the radio node to be configured. Such configuration data may represent the configuration to be configured and/or comprise one or more instruction pertaining to a configuration, e.g. a configuration for transmitting and/or receiving on allocated resources, in particular frequency resources. A radio node may configure itself, e.g., based on configuration data received from a network or network node. A network node may utilise, and/or be adapted to utilise, its circuitry/ies for configuring. Allocation information may be considered a form of configuration data. Configuration data may comprise and/or be represented by configuration information, and/or one or more corresponding indications and/or message/s

Generally, configuring may include determining configuration data representing the configuration and providing, e.g. transmitting, it to one or more other nodes (parallel and/or sequentially), which may transmit it further to the radio node (or another node, which may be repeated until it reaches the wireless device). Alternatively, or additionally, configuring a radio node, e.g., by a network node or other device, may include receiving configuration data and/or data pertaining to configuration data, e.g., from another node like a network node, which may be a higher-level node of the network, and/or transmitting received configuration data to the radio node. Accordingly, determining a configuration and transmitting the configuration data to the radio node may be performed by different network nodes or entities, which may be able to communicate via a suitable interface, e.g., an X2 interface in the case of LTE or a corresponding interface for NR. Configuring a terminal may comprise scheduling downlink and/or uplink transmissions for the terminal, e.g. downlink data and/or downlink control signaling and/or DCI and/or uplink control or data or communication signaling, in particular acknowledgement signaling, and/or configuring resources and/or a resource pool therefor.

A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in frequency domain by another resource structure, if they share a common border frequency, e.g. one as an upper frequency border and the other as a lower frequency border. Such a border may for example be represented by the upper end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n, which also represents the lower end of a bandwidth assigned to a subcarrier n+1. A resource structure may be considered to be neighbored in time domain by another resource structure, if they share a common border time, e.g. one as an upper (or right in the figures) border and the other as a lower (or left in the figures) border. Such a border may for example be represented by the end of the symbol time interval assigned to a symbol n, which also represents the beginning of a symbol time interval assigned to a symbol n+1.

Generally, a resource structure being neighbored by another resource structure in a domain may also be referred to as abutting and/or bordering the other resource structure in the domain.

A resource structure may general represent a structure in time and/or frequency domain, in particular representing a time interval and a frequency interval. A resource structure may comprise and/or be comprised of resource elements, and/or the time interval of a resource structure may comprise and/or be comprised of symbol time interval/s, and/or the frequency interval of a resource structure may comprise and/or be comprised of subcarrier/s. A resource element may be considered an example for a resource structure, a slot or mini-slot or a Physical Resource Block (PRB) or parts thereof may be considered others. A resource structure may be associated to a specific channel, e.g. a PUSCH or PUCCH, in particular resource structure smaller than a slot or PRB.

Examples of a resource structure in frequency domain comprise a bandwidth or band, or a bandwidth part. A bandwidth part may be a part of a bandwidth available for a radio node for communicating, e.g. due to circuitry and/or configuration and/or regulations and/or a standard. A bandwidth part may be configured or configurable to a radio node. In some variants, a bandwidth part may be the part of a bandwidth used for communicating, e.g. transmitting and/or receiving, by a radio node. The bandwidth part may be smaller than the bandwidth (which may be a device bandwidth defined by the circuitry/configuration of a device, and/or a system bandwidth, e.g. available for a RAN). It may be considered that a bandwidth part comprises one or more resource blocks or resource block groups, in particular one or more PRBs or PRB groups. A bandwidth part may pertain to, and/or comprise, one or more carriers.

A carrier may generally represent a frequency range or band and/or pertain to a central frequency and an associated frequency interval. It may be considered that a carrier comprises a plurality of subcarriers. A carrier may have assigned to it a central frequency or center frequency interval, e.g. represented by one or more subcarriers (to each subcarrier there may be generally assigned a frequency bandwidth or interval). Different carriers may be non-overlapping, and/or may be neighboring in frequency domain.

It should be noted that the term “radio” in this disclosure may be considered to pertain to wireless communication in general, and may also include wireless communication utilising microwave and/or millimeter and/or other frequencies, in particular between 100 MHz or 1 GHz, and 100 GHz or 20 or 10 GHz. Such communication may utilise one or more carriers.

A radio node, in particular a network node or a terminal, may generally be any device adapted for transmitting and/or receiving radio and/or wireless signals and/or data, in particular communication data, in particular on at least one carrier. The at least one carrier may comprise a carrier accessed based on a LBT procedure (which may be called LBT carrier), e.g., an unlicensed carrier. It may be considered that the carrier is part of a carrier aggregate.

Receiving or transmitting on a cell or carrier may refer to receiving or transmitting utilizing a frequency (band) or spectrum associated to the cell or carrier. A cell may generally comprise and/or be defined by or for one or more carriers, in particular at least one carrier for UL communication/transmission (called UL carrier) and at least one carrier for DL communication/transmission (called DL carrier). It may be considered that a cell comprises different numbers of UL carriers and DL carriers. Alternatively, or additionally, a cell may comprise at least one carrier for UL communication/transmission and DL communication/transmission, e.g., in TDD-based approaches.

A channel may generally be a logical, transport or physical channel. A channel may comprise and/or be arranged on one or more carriers, in particular a plurality of subcarriers. A channel carrying and/or for carrying control signaling/control information may be considered a control channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries control plane information. Analogously, a channel carrying and/or for carrying data signaling/user information may be considered a data channel, in particular if it is a physical layer channel and/or if it carries user plane information. A channel may be defined for a specific communication direction, or for two complementary communication directions (e.g., UL and DL, or sidelink in two directions), in which case it may be considered to have two component channels, one for each direction. Examples of channels comprise a channel for low latency and/or high reliability transmission, in particular a channel for Ultra-Reliable Low Latency Communication (URLLC), which may be for control and/or data.

In general, a symbol may represent and/or be associated to a symbol time length, which may be dependent on the carrier and/or subcarrier spacing and/or numerology of the associated carrier. Accordingly, a symbol may be considered to indicate a time interval having a symbol time length in relation to frequency domain. A symbol time length may be dependent on a carrier frequency and/or bandwidth and/or numerology and/or subcarrier spacing of, or associated to, a symbol. Accordingly, different symbols may have different symbol time lengths. In particular, numerologies with different subcarrier spacings may have different symbol time length. Generally, a symbol time length may be based on, and/or include, a guard time interval or cyclic extension, e.g. prefix or postfix.

A sidelink may generally represent a communication channel (or channel structure) between two UEs and/or terminals, in which data is transmitted between the participants (UEs and/or terminals) via the communication channel, e.g. directly and/or without being relayed via a network node. A sidelink may be established only and/or directly via air interface/s of the participant, which may be directly linked via the sidelink communication channel. In some variants, sidelink communication may be performed without interaction by a network node, e.g. on fixedly defined resources and/or on resources negotiated between the participants. Alternatively, or additionally, it may be considered that a network node provides some control functionality, e.g. by configuring resources, in particular one or more resource pool/s, for sidelink communication, and/or monitoring a sidelink, e.g. for charging purposes.

Sidelink communication may also be referred to as device-to-device (D2D) communication, and/or in some cases as ProSe (Proximity Services) communication, e.g. in the context of LTE. A sidelink may be implemented in the context of V2x communication (Vehicular communication), e.g. V2V (Vehicle-to-Vehicle), V2I (Vehicle-to-Infrastructure) and/or V2P (Vehicle-to-Person). Any device adapted for sidelink communication may be considered a user equipment or terminal.

A sidelink communication channel (or structure) may comprise one or more (e.g., physical or logical) channels, e.g. a PSCCH (Physical Sidelink Control CHannel, which may for example carry control information like an acknowledgement position indication, and/or a PSSCH (Physical Sidelink Shared CHannel, which for example may carry data and/or acknowledgement signaling). It may be considered that a sidelink communication channel (or structure) pertains to and/or used one or more carrier/s and/or frequency range/s associated to, and/or being used by, cellular communication, e.g. according to a specific license and/or standard. Participants may share a (physical) channel and/or resources, in particular in frequency domain and/or related to a frequency resource like a carrier) of a sidelink, such that two or more participants transmit thereon, e.g. simultaneously, and/or time-shifted, and/or there may be associated specific channels and/or resources to specific participants, so that for example only one participant transmits on a specific channel or on a specific resource or specific resources, e.g., in frequency domain and/or related to one or more carriers or subcarriers.

A sidelink may comply with, and/or be implemented according to, a specific standard, e.g. a LTE-based standard and/or NR. A sidelink may utilise TDD (Time Division Duplex) and/or FDD (Frequency Division Duplex) technology, e.g. as configured by a network node, and/or preconfigured and/or negotiated between the participants. A user equipment may be considered to be adapted for sidelink communication if it, and/or its radio circuitry and/or processing circuitry, is adapted for utilising a sidelink, e.g. on one or more frequency ranges and/or carriers and/or in one or more formats, in particular according to a specific standard. It may be generally considered that a Radio Access Network is defined by two participants of a sidelink communication. Alternatively, or additionally, a Radio Access Network may be represented, and/or defined with, and/or be related to a network node and/or communication with such a node.

Communication or communicating may generally comprise transmitting and/or receiving signaling. Communication on a sidelink (or sidelink signaling) may comprise utilising the sidelink for communication (respectively, for signaling). Sidelink transmission and/or transmitting on a sidelink may be considered to comprise transmission utilising the sidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/or circuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink reception and/or receiving on a sidelink may be considered to comprise reception utilising the sidelink, e.g. associated resources and/or transmission formats and/or circuitry and/or the air interface. Sidelink control information (e.g., SCI) may generally be considered to comprise control information transmitted utilising a sidelink.

Generally, carrier aggregation (CA) may refer to the concept of a radio connection and/or communication link between a wireless and/or cellular communication network and/or network node and a terminal or on a sidelink comprising a plurality of carriers for at least one direction of transmission (e.g. DL and/or UL), as well as to the aggregate of carriers. A corresponding communication link may be referred to as carrier aggregated communication link or CA communication link; carriers in a carrier aggregate may be referred to as component carriers (CC). In such a link, data may be transmitted over more than one of the carriers and/or all the carriers of the carrier aggregation (the aggregate of carriers). A carrier aggregation may comprise one (or more) dedicated control carriers and/or primary carriers (which may e.g. be referred to as primary component carrier or PCC), over which control information may be transmitted, wherein the control information may refer to the primary carrier and other carriers, which may be referred to as secondary carriers (or secondary component carrier, SCC). However, in some approaches, control information may be send over more than one carrier of an aggregate, e.g. one or more PCCs and one PCC and one or more SCCs.

A transmission may generally pertain to a specific channel and/or specific resources, in particular with a starting symbol and ending symbol in time, covering the interval therebetween. A scheduled transmission may be a transmission scheduled and/or expected and/or for which resources are scheduled or provided or reserved. However, not every scheduled transmission has to be realized. For example, a scheduled downlink transmission may not be received, or a scheduled uplink transmission may not be transmitted due to power limitations, or other influences (e.g., a channel on an unlicensed carrier being occupied). A transmission may be scheduled for a transmission timing substructure (e.g., a mini-slot, and/or covering only a part of a transmission timing structure) within a transmission timing structure like a slot. A border symbol may be indicative of a symbol in the transmission timing structure at which the transmission starts or ends.

Predefined in the context of this disclosure may refer to the related information being defined for example in a standard, and/or being available without specific configuration from a network or network node, e.g. stored in memory, for example independent of being configured. Configured or configurable may be considered to pertain to the corresponding information being set/configured, e.g. by the network or a network node.

A configuration or schedule, like a mini-slot configuration and/or structure configuration, may schedule transmissions, e.g. for the time/transmissions it is valid, and/or transmissions may be scheduled by separate signaling or separate configuration, e.g. separate RRC signaling and/or downlink control information signaling. The transmission/s scheduled may represent signaling to be transmitted by the device for which it is scheduled, or signaling to be received by the device for which it is scheduled, depending on which side of a communication the device is. It should be noted that downlink control information or specifically DCI signaling may be considered physical layer signaling, in contrast to higher layer signaling like MAC (Medium Access Control) signaling or RRC layer signaling. The higher the layer of signaling is, the less frequent/the more time/resource consuming it may be considered, at least partially due to the information contained in such signaling having to be passed on through several layers, each layer requiring processing and handling.

A scheduled transmission, and/or transmission timing structure like a mini-slot or slot, may pertain to a specific channel, in particular a physical uplink shared channel, a physical uplink control channel, or a physical downlink shared channel, e.g. PUSCH, PUCCH or PDSCH, and/or may pertain to a specific cell and/or carrier aggregation. A corresponding configuration, e.g. scheduling configuration or symbol configuration may pertain to such channel, cell and/or carrier aggregation. It may be considered that the scheduled transmission represents transmission on a physical channel, in particular a shared physical channel, for example a physical uplink shared channel or physical downlink shared channel. For such channels, semi-persistent configuring may be particularly suitable.

Generally, a configuration may be a configuration indicating timing, and/or be represented or configured with corresponding configuration data. A configuration may be embedded in, and/or comprised in, a message or configuration or corresponding data, which may indicate and/or schedule resources, in particular semi-persistently and/or semi-statically.

A control region of a transmission timing structure may be an interval in time for intended or scheduled or reserved for control signaling, in particular downlink control signaling, and/or for a specific control channel, e.g. a physical downlink control channel like PDCCH. The interval may comprise, and/or consist of, a number of symbols in time, which may be configured or configurable, e.g. by (UE-specific) dedicated signaling (which may be single-cast, for example addressed to or intended for a specific UE), e.g. on a PDCCH, or RRC signaling, or on a multicast or broadcast channel. In general, the transmission timing structure may comprise a control region covering a configurable number of symbols. It may be considered that in general the border symbol is configured to be after the control region in time.

The duration of a symbol (symbol time length or interval) of the transmission timing structure may generally be dependent on a numerology and/or carrier, wherein the numerology and/or carrier may be configurable. The numerology may be the numerology to be used for the scheduled transmission.

Scheduling a device, or for a device, and/or related transmission or signaling, may be considered comprising, or being a form of, configuring the device with resources, and/or of indicating to the device resources, e.g. to use for communicating. Scheduling may in particular pertain to a transmission timing structure, or a substructure thereof (e.g., a slot or a mini-slot, which may be considered a substructure of a slot). It may be considered that a border symbol may be identified and/or determined in relation to the transmission timing structure even if for a substructure being scheduled, e.g. if an underlying timing grid is defined based on the transmission timing structure. Signaling indicating scheduling may comprise corresponding scheduling information and/or be considered to represent or contain configuration data indicating the scheduled transmission and/or comprising scheduling information. Such configuration data or signaling may be considered a resource configuration or scheduling configuration. It should be noted that such a configuration (in particular as single message) in some cases may not be complete without other configuration data, e.g. configured with other signaling, e.g. higher layer signaling. In particular, the symbol configuration may be provided in addition to scheduling/resource configuration to identify exactly which symbols are assigned to a scheduled transmission. A scheduling (or resource) configuration may indicate transmission timing structure/s and/or resource amount (e.g., in number of symbols or length in time) for a scheduled transmission.

A scheduled transmission may be transmission scheduled, e.g. by the network or network node. Transmission may in this context may be uplink (UL) or downlink (DL) or sidelink (SL) transmission. A device, e.g. a user equipment, for which the scheduled transmission is scheduled, may accordingly be scheduled to receive (e.g., in DL or SL), or to transmit (e.g. in UL or SL) the scheduled transmission. Scheduling transmission may in particular be considered to comprise configuring a scheduled device with resource/s for this transmission, and/or informing the device that the transmission is intended and/or scheduled for some resources. A transmission may be scheduled to cover a time interval, in particular a successive number of symbols, which may form a continuous interval in time between (and including) a starting symbol and an ending symbols. The starting symbol and the ending symbol of a (e.g., scheduled) transmission may be within the same transmission timing structure, e.g. the same slot. However, in some cases, the ending symbol may be in a later transmission timing structure than the starting symbol, in particular a structure following in time. To a scheduled transmission, a duration may be associated and/or indicated, e.g. in a number of symbols or associated time intervals. In some variants, there may be different transmissions scheduled in the same transmission timing structure. A scheduled transmission may be considered to be associated to a specific channel, e.g. a shared channel like PUSCH or PDSCH.

In the context of this disclosure, there may be distinguished between dynamically scheduled or aperiodic transmission and/or configuration, and semi-static or semi-persistent or periodic transmission and/or configuration. The term “dynamic” or similar terms may generally pertain to configuration/transmission valid and/or scheduled and/or configured for (relatively) short timescales and/or a (e.g., predefined and/or configured and/or limited and/or definite) number of occurrences and/or transmission timing structures, e.g. one or more transmission timing structures like slots or slot aggregations, and/or for one or more (e.g., specific number) of transmission/occurrences. Dynamic configuration may be based on low-level signaling, e.g. control signaling on the physical layer and/or MAC layer, in particular in the form of DCI or SCI. Periodic/semi-static may pertain to longer timescales, e.g. several slots and/or more than one frame, and/or a non-defined number of occurrences, e.g., until a dynamic configuration contradicts, or until a new periodic configuration arrives. A periodic or semi-static configuration may be based on, and/or be configured with, higher-layer signaling, in particular RCL layer signaling and/or RRC signaling and/or MAC signaling.

A transmission timing structure may comprise a plurality of symbols, and/or define an interval comprising several symbols (respectively their associated time intervals). In the context of this disclosure, it should be noted that a reference to a symbol for ease of reference may be interpreted to refer to the time domain projection or time interval or time component or duration or length in time of the symbol, unless it is clear from the context that the frequency domain component also has to be considered. Examples of transmission timing structures include slot, subframe, mini-slot (which also may be considered a substructure of a slot), slot aggregation (which may comprise a plurality of slots and may be considered a superstructure of a slot), respectively their time domain component. A transmission timing structure may generally comprise a plurality of symbols defining the time domain extension (e.g., interval or length or duration) of the transmission timing structure, and arranged neighboring to each other in a numbered sequence. A timing structure (which may also be considered or implemented as synchronisation structure) may be defined by a succession of such transmission timing structures, which may for example define a timing grid with symbols representing the smallest grid structures. A transmission timing structure, and/or a border symbol or a scheduled transmission may be determined or scheduled in relation to such a timing grid. A transmission timing structure of reception may be the transmission timing structure in which the scheduling control signaling is received, e.g. in relation to the timing grid. A transmission timing structure may in particular be a slot or subframe or in some cases, a mini-slot.

Feedback signaling may be considered a form or control signaling, e.g. uplink or sidelink control signaling, like UCI (Uplink Control Information) signaling or SCI (Sidelink Control Information) signaling. Feedback signaling may in particular comprise and/or represent acknowledgement signaling and/or acknowledgement information and/or measurement reporting.

Acknowledgement information may comprise an indication of a specific value or state for an acknowledgement signaling process, e.g. ACK or NACK or DTX. Such an indication may for example represent a bit or bit value or bit pattern or an information switch. Different levels of acknowledgement information, e.g. providing differentiated information about quality of reception and/or error position in received data element/s may be considered and/or represented by control signaling. Acknowledgment information may generally indicate acknowledgment or non-acknowledgment or non-reception or different levels thereof, e.g. representing ACK or NACK or DTX. Acknowledgment information may pertain to one acknowledgement signaling process. Acknowledgement signaling may comprise acknowledgement information pertaining to one or more acknowledgement signaling processes, in particular one or more HARQ or ARQ processes. It may be considered that to each acknowledgment signaling process the acknowledgement information pertains to, a specific number of bits of the information size of the control signaling is assigned. Measurement reporting signaling may comprise measurement information.

Signaling may generally comprise one or more symbols and/or signals and/or messages. A signal may comprise and/or represent one or more bits, which may be modulated into a common modulated signal. An indication may represent signaling, and/or be implemented as a signal, or as a plurality of signals. One or more signals may be included in and/or represented by a message. Signaling, in particular control signaling, may comprise a plurality of signals and/or messages, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes. An indication may comprise signaling and/or a plurality of signals and/or messages and/or may be comprised therein, which may be transmitted on different carriers and/or be associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes, e.g. representing and/or pertaining to one or more such processes.

Signaling utilising, and/or on and/or associated to, resources or a resource structure may be signaling covering the resources or structure, signaling on the associated frequency/ies and/or in the associated time interval/s. It may be considered that a signaling resource structure comprises and/or encompasses one or more substructures, which may be associated to one or more different channels and/or types of signaling and/or comprise one or more holes (resource element/s not scheduled for transmissions or reception of transmissions). A resource substructure, e.g. a feedback resource structure, may generally be continuous in time and/or frequency, within the associated intervals. It may be considered that a substructure, in particular a feedback resource structure, represents a rectangle filled with one or more resource elements in time/frequency space. However, in some cases, a resource structure or substructure, in particular a frequency resource range, may represent a non-continuous pattern of resources in one or more domains, e.g. time and/or frequency. The resource elements of a substructure may be scheduled for associated signaling.

It should generally be noted that the number of bits or a bit rate associated to specific signaling that can be carried on a resource element may be based on a modulation and coding scheme (MCS). Thus, bits or a bit rate may be seen as a form of resources representing a resource structure or range in frequency and/or time, e.g. depending on MCS. The MCS may be configured or configurable, e.g. by control signaling, e.g. DCI or MAC (Medium Access Control) or RRC (Radio Resource Control) signaling.

Different formats of for control information may be considered, e.g. different formats for a control channel like a Physical Uplink Control Channel (PUCCH). PUCCH may carry control information or corresponding control signaling, e.g. Uplink Control Information (UCI). UCI may comprise feedback signaling, and/or acknowledgement signaling like HARQ feedback (ACK/NACK), and/or measurement information signaling, e.g. comprising Channel Quality Information (CQI), and/or Scheduling Request (SR) signaling. One of the supported PUCCH formats may be short, and may e.g. occur at the end of a slot interval, and/or multiplexed and/or neighboring to PUSCH. Similar control information may be provided on a sidelink, e.g. as Sidelink Control Information (SCI), in particular on a (physical) sidelink control channel, like a (P)SCCH.

A code block may be considered a subelement of a data element like a transport block, e.g., a transport block may comprise a one or a plurality of code blocks.

A scheduling assignment may be configured with control signaling, e.g. downlink control signaling or sidelink control signaling. Such controls signaling may be considered to represent and/or comprise scheduling signaling, which may indicate scheduling information. A scheduling assignment may be considered scheduling information indicating scheduling of signaling/transmission of signaling, in particular pertaining to signaling received or to be received by the device configured with the scheduling assignment. It may be considered that a scheduling assignment may indicate data (e.g., data block or element and/or channel and/or data stream) and/or an (associated) acknowledgement signaling process and/or resource/s on which the data (or, in some cases, reference signaling) is to be received and/or indicate resource/s for associated feedback signaling, and/or a feedback resource range on which associated feedback signaling is to be transmitted. Transmission associated to an acknowledgement signaling process, and/or the associated resources or resource structure, may be configured and/or scheduled, for example by a scheduling assignment. Different scheduling assignments may be associated to different acknowledgement signaling processes. A scheduling assignment may be considered an example of downlink control information or signaling, e.g. if transmitted by a network node and/or provided on downlink (or sidelink control information if transmitted using a sidelink and/or by a user equipment).

A scheduling grant (e.g., uplink grant) may represent control signaling (e.g., downlink control information/signaling). It may be considered that a scheduling grant configures the signaling resource range and/or resources for uplink (or sidelink) signaling, in particular uplink control signaling and/or feedback signaling, e.g. acknowledgement signaling. Configuring the signaling resource range and/or resources may comprise configuring or scheduling it for transmission by the configured radio node. A scheduling grant may indicate a channel and/or possible channels to be used/usable for the feedback signaling, in particular whether a shared channel like a PUSCH may be used/is to be used. A scheduling grant may generally indicate uplink resource/s and/or an uplink channel and/or a format for control information pertaining to associated scheduling assignments. Both grant and assignment/s may be considered (downlink or sidelink) control information, and/or be associated to, and/or transmitted with, different messages.

A resource structure in frequency domain (which may be referred to as frequency interval and/or range) may be represented by a subcarrier grouping. A subcarrier grouping may comprise one or more subcarriers, each of which may represent a specific frequency interval, and/or bandwidth. The bandwidth of a subcarrier, the length of the interval in frequency domain, may be determined by the subcarrier spacing and/or numerology. The subcarriers may be arranged such that each subcarrier neighbours at least one other subcarrier of the grouping in frequency space (for grouping sizes larger than 1). The subcarriers of a grouping may be associated to the same carrier, e.g. configurably or configured of predefined. A physical resource block may be considered representative of a grouping (in frequency domain). A subcarrier grouping may be considered to be associated to a specific channel and/or type of signaling, it transmission for such channel or signaling is scheduled and/or transmitted and/or intended and/or configured for at least one, or a plurality, or all subcarriers in the grouping. Such association may be time-dependent, e.g. configured or configurable or predefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. The association may be different for different devices, e.g. configured or configurable or predefined, and/or dynamic or semi-static. Patterns of subcarrier groupings may be considered, which may comprise one or more subcarrier groupings (which may be associated to same or different signalings/channels), and/or one or more groupings without associated signaling (e.g., as seen from a specific device). An example of a pattern is a comb, for which between pairs of groupings associated to the same signaling/channel there are arranged one or more groupings associated to one or more different channels and/or signaling types, and/or one or more groupings without associated channel/signaling).

Example types of signaling comprise signaling of a specific communication direction, in particular, uplink signaling, downlink signaling, sidelink signaling, as well as reference signaling (e.g., SRS or CRS or CSI-RS), communication signaling, control signaling, and/or signaling associated to a specific channel like PUSCH, PDSCH, PUCCH, PDCCH, PSCCH, PSSCH, etc.).

In this disclosure, for purposes of explanation and not limitation, specific details are set forth (such as particular network functions, processes and signaling steps) in order to provide a thorough understanding of the technique presented herein. It will be apparent to one skilled in the art that the present concepts and aspects may be practiced in other variants and variants that depart from these specific details.

For example, the concepts and variants are partially described in the context of Long Term Evolution (LTE) or LTE-Advanced (LTE-A) or New Radio mobile or wireless communications technologies; however, this does not rule out the use of the present concepts and aspects in connection with additional or alternative mobile communication technologies such as the Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM). While described variants may pertain to certain Technical Specifications (TSs) of the Third Generation Partnership Project (3GPP), it will be appreciated that the present approaches, concepts and aspects could also be realized in connection with different Performance Management (PM) specifications.

Moreover, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the services, functions and steps explained herein may be implemented using software functioning in conjunction with a programmed microprocessor, or using an Application Specific Integrated Circuit (ASIC), a Digital Signal Processor (DSP), a Field Programmable Gate Array (FPGA) or general purpose computer. It will also be appreciated that while the variants described herein are elucidated in the context of methods and devices, the concepts and aspects presented herein may also be embodied in a program product as well as in a system comprising control circuitry, e.g. a computer processor and a memory coupled to the processor, wherein the memory is encoded with one or more programs or program products that execute the services, functions and steps disclosed herein.

It is believed that the advantages of the aspects and variants presented herein will be fully understood from the foregoing description, and it will be apparent that various changes may be made in the form, constructions and arrangement of the exemplary aspects thereof without departing from the scope of the concepts and aspects described herein or without sacrificing all of its advantageous effects. The aspects presented herein can be varied in many ways.

Some useful abbreviations comprise

Abbreviation Explanation ACK/NACK Acknowledgment/Negative Acknowledgement ARQ Automatic Repeat reQuest CAZAC Constant Amplitude Zero Cross Correlation CBG Code Block Group CDM Code Division Multiplex CM Cubic Metric CQI Channel Quality Information CRC Cyclic Redundancy Check CRS Common reference signal CSI Channel State Information CSI-RS Channel state information reference signal DAI Downlink Assignment Indicator DCI Downlink Control Information DFT Discrete Fourier Transform DM(-)RS Demodulation reference signal(ing) FDM Frequency Division Multiplex HARQ Hybrid Automatic Repeat Request IFFT Inverse Fast Fourier Transform MBB Mobile Broadband MCS Modulation and Coding Scheme MIMO Multiple-input-multiple-output MRC Maximum-ratio combining MRT Maximum-ratio transmission MU-MIMO Multiuser multiple-input-multiple-output OFDM/A Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplex/ Multiple Access PAPR Peak to Average Power Ratio PDCCH Physical Downlink Control Channel PDSCH Physical Downlink Shared Channel PRACH Physical Random Access CHannel PRB Physical Resource Block PUCCH Physical Uplink Control Channel PUSCH Physical Uplink Shared Channel (P)SCCH (Physical) Sidelink Control Channel (P)SSCH (Physical) Sidelink Shared Channel RB Resource Block RRC Radio Resource Control SC-FDM/A Single Carrier Frequency Division Multiplex/Multiple Access SCI Sidelink Control Information SINR Signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio SIR Signal-to-interference ratio SNR Signal-to-noise-ratio SR Scheduling Request SRS Sounding Reference Signal(ing) SVD Singular-value decomposition TDM Time Division Multiplex UCI Uplink Control Information UE User Equipment URLLC Ultra Low Latency High Reliability Communication VL-MIMO Very-large multiple-input-multiple-output ZF Zero Forcing

Abbreviations may be considered to follow 3GPP usage if applicable. 

1. A method of operating a user equipment in a radio access network, the user equipment being configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel, the user equipment further being configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel, the method comprising: transmitting control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration.
 2. A user equipment for a radio access network, the user equipment being configured with: a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel; and data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel; and the user equipment is configured to: transmit control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration.
 3. A method of operating a radio node in a radio access network, the method comprising: receiving control information from a user equipment configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel, the user equipment further being configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel, the control information being received on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration.
 4. A radio node for a radio access network, the radio node being configured to: receive control information from a user equipment configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel, the user equipment further being configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel, the radio node the radio node being further configured to receive the control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration.
 5. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control channel configuration indicates a code rate for the control channel.
 6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control information is mapped for transmission to data channel resources based on a code rate indicated by the control channel configuration.
 7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control channel configuration is configured with a downlink control information message.
 8. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control channel configuration indicates control channel resources for transmission of control information on the control channel coinciding in time domain with data channel resources.
 9. The method according to claim 1, wherein at least one parameter based on which control information is mapped to data channel resources is determined based on the control channel configuration.
 10. The method according to claim 1, wherein control information is mapped to data channel resources based on a set of formulas, one of which is selected adaptively for each mapping.
 11. The method according to claim 1, wherein control information is mapped to data channel resources based on a control signaling type.
 12. The method according to claim 1, wherein the data channel resources are configured with a first control information message, and the control channel configuration is configured with a different second control information message, wherein at least one of: the first control information message is a scheduling grant; and the second control information message is a scheduling assignment.
 13. The method according to claim 1, wherein the control information is one of rate-matched and punctured on the data channel.
 14. A computer storage medium storing an executable computer program comprising instructions that, when executed, causes processing circuitry to at least one of control and perform a method of operating a user equipment in a radio access network, the user equipment being configured with a control channel configuration pertaining to transmission of control information on a control channel, the user equipment further being configured with data channel resources for transmission of data on a data channel, the method comprising: transmitting control information on data channel resources based on the control channel configuration.
 15. (canceled)
 16. The method according to claim 3, wherein the control channel configuration indicates a code rate for the control channel.
 17. The method according to claim 3, wherein the control information is mapped for transmission to data channel resources based on a code rate indicated by the control channel configuration.
 18. The method according to claim 3, wherein the control channel configuration is configured with a downlink control information message.
 19. The method according to claim 3, wherein the control channel configuration indicates control channel resources for transmission of control information on the control channel coinciding in time domain with data channel resources.
 20. The method according to claim 3, wherein at least one parameter based on which control information is mapped to data channel resources is determined based on the control channel configuration.
 21. The method according to claim 3, wherein control information is mapped to data channel resources based on a set of formulas, one of which is selected adaptively for each mapping. 